A tragedy at sea off Rio de Janeiro, a global crisis, a hidden story of espionage. The death of the Russian ambassador is a compelling account of how hidden events can impact major historical events. On the rainy Sunday of October 21, 1962, Russian ambassador Ilya Chernyshov decided to swim at Barra da Tijuca beach in Rio de Janeiro, accompanied by two embassy employees, despite the warning of lifeguards and the strong surf. The tragedy was reported in major newspapers: the ambassador was pulled from the water already dead. One of the employees was okay, but the other was presumed dead, although his body was never found. The next day, in a dramatic televised address, President John F. Kennedy presented the world with photographs of Soviet nuclear missiles being installed in Cuba. He also decreed a maritime blockade of the island, demanding the destruction of the facilities and the return of the warheads to the Soviet Union. World War III had never been so close to breaking out. At that time, Brazil was experiencing its brief parliamentary period. President João Goulart and Prime Minister Hermes Lima attended Chernyshov's wake. Luís Carlos Prestes and Jorge Amado, two leading figures of Brazilian communism, laid wreaths. Thanks to the "independent foreign policy" initiated in 1961 and the relative ideological closeness between Goulart and Fidel Castro, the Brazilian government was poised to play an unexpected role in the crisis between the US, USSR, and Cuba. Paulo Valente's "The Death of the Russian Ambassador" skillfully weaves together historical facts large and small. Furthermore, it explores possibilities closed to historians, imbuing the Russian ambassador's death with hidden meanings, discerning circumstances that would ultimately be linked to the 1964 coup, and unfolding stories of espionage and counterintelligence, the veracity of which is up to the reader to assess. In the author's words: "My text is true, whether in my imagination or in real events, the source matters little." In the book's preface, Rubens Ricupero writes: "This novel by Paulo Valente is original in Brazilian literature, not only because it is an espionage plot, a field rarely explored by our fiction writers and until now almost reserved for the disastrous incursions of Brazilian spymasters. The originality of the plot, however, is not limited to the chosen genre. It extends to another domain, that of fiction-reality or reportage-fiction, by choosing a story set in a real geostrategic crisis, that of the Cuban missiles."
Paulo Valente é economista e escritor. Sua obra inclui as ficções históricas Lealdade a si próprio (2014) e A morte do embaixador russo (Editora Record, 2023), além dos títulos infantis As aventuras de Taz Valente (José Olympio, 2005), O leão de tanto urrar desanimou (2012), selecionado pelo FNDE/PNLD Literário 2018, e Pedro e a onça (2013). Publicou ainda os livros de economia Financiamentos de longo prazo (2011), Guia para a compra e venda de empresas (2017), Governança corporativa (2017) e Conquistando seu futuro financeiro (2022).
